Mulder and Scully's REAL First Case
by notallthosewhowander
Summary: What if Mulder and Scully's first case was actually before their alleged first meeting in Mulder's basement office to work on the X-Files? Mulder and Scully work a case while Scully is still at the FBI Academy, and now tell Skinner about it all of these years later. (Set in season 6 or 7).
1. Chapter 1

Federal Bureau of Investigation Assistant Director Walter Skinner sat at his desk in his private office with his two favorite, but most difficult, agents before him. Agents Mulder and Scully had just turned in their reports on a case involving, what Mulder believed to be a poltergeist, but Scully insisted was just a series of unexplainable unfortunate events. Skinner wondered to himself whether the two partners would ever have a consistent rate of agreement on a few cases in a row. This constant difference between the stories of his esteemed agents was part of the source of their near continual disapproval by the Board of Directors.

And, not for the first time, Skinner asked this query out loud. "Will you two ever come to me with a case you can both agree on?"

In response Mulder smiled and Scully just rolled her eyes, a smirk on her face.

Then Mulder gave an unexpected answer: "Actually, there was a time when we agreed on a lot of things."

Instantly Scully's smirk vanished and was replaced with a glare at Mulder, but her face blushed bright red, giving away that this was a sensitive topic.

"Really?" Skinner asked, curious to the mixed reactions of his agents.

"Yeah-" Mulder started, but was cut off by Scully.

"Mulder, we agreed that we would never tell anyone about that!" she urged in a harsh whisper, while flashing panicked glances at Skinner.

"Scully, if anyone should know its Skinner, I mean he knows practically everything else about us."

"But we agreed a long time ago that this is what was best for the both of us and our careers."

"Stop being so dramatic, it is not like Skinner would tell anyone, would you, Sir?"

Skinner had been watching this exchange like an avid tennis fan, and was unprepared to answer the question. After a pause he replied, "Tell anyone what, Agent Mulder?"

Looking at Scully with a smile, Mulder countered, "The real first time Scully and I met. Although back then we called each other Dana and Fox."


	2. Chapter 2

DISCLAIMER: I do not own "The X-Files" or it's characters.

NOTE: The Xx between paragraphs, for the purposes of clarity, identifies were the story jumps from the scene in Skinner's office where Mulder and Scully are telling the story, and the exact events that occurred in 1990.

"The real first time Scully and I met. Although back then we called each other Dana and Fox."

Skinner's jaw dropped slightly. No one, as far as he had knowledge knew the agents had known each other before they were assigned as partners. Not that it mattered, but people were often assigned with people they had gone to the Academy with, and that relationship was clearly known. Background checks were performed on all agents when they were admitted into the Bureau and when agents were placed together as partners, to ensure that the individuals would be compatible. So if the past relationship of Mulder and Scully was unknown, that implies that they hid it from the Bureau for God knows how long. This storm of thought flashed through Skinner's mind in an instant.

"You two knew each other?"

"Yes," this time it was Scully who answered. "We met while I was studying at the FBI Academy, in March of 1990."

Xx

Dana Scully had just started at the FBI Academy at Quantico, it was her fifth week and already she felt at home. This was the place where she would learn to distinguish herself, the place where she was excelling.

It was the end of March, and today the fickle nature of the month proved it to be a beautiful warm day, the first signs of spring finally emerging. Dana decided to grasp the opportunity and go for a run around campus. She had just stopped to rest on one of the many benches along the path when she was startled by a voice.

Looking up she found a young man, a few years older than herself, panting and sweating from an intense run. He was tall, handsome and had a rather large nose.

Then he spoke again, "Can I sit here?"

She replied, "I don't know, can you?"

Chucking he countered "May I sit here?"

"There you go, and go right ahead I was just about to leave."

"Oh, well it was nice meeting you...?"

"Dana Scully"

"Well nice to meet you, Dana, I'm Fox Mulder."

They shook hands.

Dana stood and said "See you later Fox," a smile on her lips from his unusual name. Then she was off again, the homework she had to do for her Behavioral Science class on her mind.

Had she been listening she would have heard him call, "It's just Mulder!"

Xx

"Little did we know that she would in fact see me later, that afternoon in fact. I was a temporary substitute for Special Agent Rodney of the Behavioral Sciences Unit." Mulder continued, "Agent Rodney had been keeping tabs on me since he taught me during my tenure at the Academy. He was needed to advise other agents on a serial killer case in Chicago, the prosecution of the case was kept beyond the public eye, so Rodney asked me to temporarily fill in for his Behavior class. If anyone asked about Rodney's location, I was to say he was on a case at the need of the Director. If the students asked, I simply told them he had fallen ill, but would return soon."

"Agent Scully and I met again that day in the Behavioral Studies classroom. Agent Rodney gave me the lesson plans for the week, starting with body signs to watch for during interrogations. This was something I was very familiar with from my work at the Bureau and my Psychology background.

Xx

Dana walked into the Behavioral Studies room that afternoon, and was surprised that Agent Rodney was not seated at his desk as usual; he was a proponent and enforcer of punctuality. She found her seat and waited listening to the whispers and rumors being spread by her classmates, when suddenly, a familiar tall and lanky frame entered the room, wearing dress pants and a tie.

Fox?

The man she had assumed was either a fellow student or a local taking advantage of the quality running track, was now, as he had just explained to the class, her substitute teacher. And she had corrected his grammar.

Dana focused on what he was saying just in time to hear him ask the class, "What sorts of bodily functions and movements could give a suspect away?"

The students were a little shy at first but then began just throwing out answers. When they ran out of things to say, "Agent Mulder" took it further, asking how this was helpful.

"You can't win a jury by saying the subject looked a little pale during the interrogation, so how is it helpful to you without a polygraph, to know how the suspect is responding to various questions?"

There was a pause, as her classmates stopped to consider their responses. Unconsciously Dana's hand went up from the middle of the room, and she answered, "When you detect that a suspect is lying or covering up the truth due to their body language, you can use that to your advantage by asking the correct questions in different ways in order to almost trick them into verbally, on the record, answering the questions their body already gave away. The verbal confession is then viable to use in court."

"An excellent tactic, Miss...?"

"Scully, Dana Scully."

Mulder smiled, a certain glint in his eye only Dana would understand, "Nice to meet you Dana, now let's talk about how we use body language and interrogation tactics..."

Xx

"And that was the first time Scully and I officially met." Mulder concluded.

Skinner reflected on the story he had just heard. "So that really was the first time you met, while running and in a classroom. You have never given anything away about knowing each other previously in all these years. Not that it really matters, Mulder was just a substitute teacher for a week, right Scully? There was not anything in that story that you could have not told the Bureau."

Now both of them blushed.

"What, what else happened?"

Thank you for reading, as it is the summer and I am bored, I will try to post a chapter everyday, or maybe a couple chapters in a day.


	3. Chapter 3

DISCLAIMER: I do not own "The X-Files" or its characters.

Mulder picked up the story again. "Well as part of the class the students were to interrogate hired actors who portrayed actual criminals from FBI cases in Hogan's Alley, the fake town used by the Academy to give raising agents safe and controlled experience in the field. The project was done in pairs, but on that day a student was out due to a broken ankle suffered in physical training. So a student would be paired up with me. As I was always the kid who people did not pick to be their partner, I employed the pull the name out of the can system, the last student picked would be with me. Pacing the can around the room, all the names were called until Dana was the last name in the can, so Scully and I were to work our first, albeit fake, case together.

Scully interjected here: "I was a little nervous being forced to work so directly with our teacher, especially since this might influence my grade, but I was eager to impress. So I stayed up half the night, reading up on interrogations and body language."

Mulder chuckled, "I didn't know you were trying to impress me so much, Scully. I'm flattered."

She ignored Mulder's attempts at flirting as usual. "Anyway, our assignment was to question an actor, portraying a man who had committed some major white collar crimes, embezzlement and fraud. He played the role well, the fake criminal's name was James Hasting. Mulder and I met up with the rest of the class outside of the building in Hogan's Alley, then we were split up to go the separate interrogation rooms. On first glance Hasting was a well dressed and groomed man of about thirty. He was calm and collected and maintained the poise of a impeccably brought up son of a wealthy business mogul, which is what the character was."

Xx

Mulder and Dana entered the interrogation room to find Hasting sitting in the horribly uncomfortable chair as if it was a throne. He raised his eyes to those of the agents but did not speak a word. Dana broke the silence by saying, "Mr. Hasting, we are here to ask you some questions about the crimes of embezzlement and fraud that have been placed against you by the state of Virginia."

"I have nothing to hide." Was his simple reply.

"Great then this should be a piece of cake," Dana replied with a smile. "You have been tied to the crimes of stolen funds from the hasting corporation that has been systematically removed on seemingly random dates over the past year, is that correct?"

Well it is what they brought me here for." Hasting stated boredly.

"Then you claim no knowledge of missing funds from your father's company?"

"Yes, I never heard of such a thing."

"Your father never mentioned a sudden drop in profits?"

"No."

Mulder sat through this in silence, seeming to let Dana control the situation entirely, waiting to see where she would go next.

"How is your relationship with your father?"

Here hasting's eyebrow twitched. Dana saw it and choose to move in that direction.

"Do you get along well?"

"As well as any father and son should."

"Have you always gotten along so well?"

"Yes."

"Never had any big disagreements about business practices?" Hasting's eyebrow twitched again, he started to look pale.

"No."

Dana let the notion drop for a moment ."That's good. Do you know of anyone who did, maybe a disgruntled high ranking employee who could have felt they, for example, deserved more of the profits?"

Something like relief flashed across Hasting's eyes. "My father has a board of advisors, who are always looking to lead him in new profitable directions and then demanding more money due to the success of their plans. They are probably the one's who blamed the incidents on me."

Dana sensed that Hasting was more comfortable, these seemed like lines he had practiced in training to realistically portray this man.

After taking down the names of the men and women in question, Dana stood up from the table and said "Thank you for your time Mr. Hastings that will be all for now."

Mulder stood and followed Dana out.

"Dana, you were a natural in there!" Mulder gushed, "I was not even needed, are you sure this was the first time you interrogated someone?"

"Yeah, except for my brothers. But Fox I think there's something bigger going on here. That actor's reactions were too real for him to be acting."

"That's what he gets paid for Dana, to become the criminal they are portraying so much so that they react as they would if it was their own lies they were telling."

"No, there is something more going in here, I just don't know what."

Xx

At that moment Skinner's secretary knocked and entered to announce Skinner's next meeting was to start in five minutes.

"Thank you, Skinner told her as she left. "But we will finish this later," as Mulder and Scully stood and left his office.


	4. Chapter 4

DISCLAIMER: I do not own "The X-Files" or is characters.

Mulder and Scully left Skinner's office and proceeded to their basement office in silence. Mulder could sense that Scully was going to tell him off as soon as they reached the privacy of the office.

He was right.

"Mulder, why-"

He cut her off before she could begin the rant that she had been forming in her head since he opened his mouth to begin telling the story. "Scully, it is too late now, Skinner will want to know the rest of the story now. Anyway it was only a matter of time before the cat got out of the bag."

"Mulder, the cat stayed in the bag for the past nine years! Most likely it would have stayed that way."

"Ah well. Sorry Scully, I just wanted to reminisce with you." He said with his signature grin. "Speaking of bringing back old memories, how about we go out to dinner. It is a Friday night, we are young, let's go out on the Bureau credit card."

"What? Mulder!" Scully replied in the exasperated tone she saved especially for her eccentric but brilliant partner.

He simply smirked at her.

"Fine, you've won me over. But we are not going to use the Bureau's money, you're paying. And pick me up at 8:00."

"Fine, if that is the price I have to pay to have a quality evening with the only woman crazy enough to spend time with me."

Mulder run out of the office, chuckling before Scully could whack him with the case folders she was holding.

Before Mulder drove to Scully's apartment, he called her.

"Scully."

"Hey Scully, it's me."

"What is it, Mulder?"

"What are you wearing right now?"

"God Mulder, you perv."

He laughed, "No, I just wanted to take you some place really nice, so I wanted you to know so you could dress properly. See, I was just trying to be a gentleman."

"Ha ha, sure Mulder. Alright, I'll change into something more suitable. Thank you kind sir."

Scully hung up.

Unknown to each other, both of their hearts raced. Scully's at the idea of sitting with Mulder in a fancy restaurant, and Mulder's at the possibility of viewing the rare occasion of Scully in a dress.

At 8:00 sharp an anxious Mulder stood outside of Scully's apartment, and knocked on the all too familiar door. After a slight pause, Scully opened the door. Both parties gave a mental gasp. Mulder was clad in his best suit and a powder blue tie. Scully was dressed in her favorite little black dress that hugged her in all the right places, and in a moment of daring, had paired it with bright red pumps.

Coughing slightly Mulder said, "You look great, Scully."

"You too, Mulder."

Together they walked down the hall. After the few intense seconds in the elevator, the two headed to the car, with Mulder opening the door for Scully and helping into her seat.

"So, where are you taking me Mulder, and what is the occasion?"

"Oh, just the best seafood restaurant in D.C., I know how you love the bounties of our oceans."

Scully giggled at Mulder's weirdness. It was one of things that made him so endearing.

"And as for the occasion, we never get out enough together. Unless of course we are shoved into separate sketchy motel rooms. So I figured we deserved a night on the town."

Mulder and Scully conversed comfortably for the rest of the car journey. When they arrived at the restaurant, Mulder had called ahead to make reservations and had requested a table in a more private section of the spacious restaurant. Scully raised her eyebrows at their express treatment, but said nothing, secretly enjoying Mulder's thoughtfulness.

They sat, staring at each other for a moment. Then Mulder started the conversation he had been anxiously holding in all day.

"So what did you think of me, that first time we saw each other?"

Scully had been expecting the topic to turn to this eventually, but had not expected Mulder to be for forthright with it, or the earnestness in Mulder's eyes. He really wanted an honest answer.

"You mean when you ran up to me, all sweaty and gross?" Scully laughed, teasing him.

He laughed too, but his answer bared no hint of humor, "Yes."

Scully pondered it for a moment, "Well, at first I was shocked because I had not been paying attention. But I assumed that you were another student, and I wondered how I had never noticed you before. I mean, you are not particularly easy to miss in the crowd."

"Why is that, may I ask?"

"Because you are tall, duh."

Mulder chuckled, "You know Scully, I am not even that tall, you are just super short."

"Wow Mulder, was that you first opinion of me that I was 'super short'."

"That was part of it, I guess. But my initial reaction was that despite the fact that you were, what did you say, 'all sweaty and gross,' that you were extraordinarily beautiful."

Scully blushed. The fact that his words had that effect on his partner, made Mulder blush too.

They continued in that way, conversing of their favorite past and present memories with each other. The times they laughed together. The times they shared in perfect moments of happiness. Moments like this one.

Feeling stuffed, Mulder walked Scully to the door of her apartment building. She was just about to ask Mulder whether he would like to come up for coffee, when she caught him staring at her with a peculiar expression on his face. He looked as though he was trying to make a hard decision.

"Mulder-" Scully started, but for the second time this evening, was cut off by her partner.

"Scully, I really enjoy spending time with you like this."

"Me too, Mulder."

"Then why don't we do it more often?"

Mulder took a step closer to Scully, his eyes intense.

"Well, I mean we are usually so busy with tracking down aliens…"

Mulder had taken another step closer, Scully could feel his breath on her face.

"You look really beautiful tonight, Dana, just like you did the day I first met you."

"Mulder, I…" Scully drifted off again.

Mulder was looking so intently into her blue eyes with his green ones, that Scully could not think clearly. Her eyes were closing of their own accord, her head tilting to met his, until softly their lips touched. For a moment they both stayed their, perfectly still. Then their lips began to move together slowly. But when Mulder's hand reached up to cup Scully's cheek, his thumb tracing her cheek bone, Scully opened her eyes, and came to her senses.

"No." She said against his mouth, "no."

She stepped back, placing her hands on Mulder's chest pushing him away. "No, we can't do this. We agreed all those years ago that we can't do this."

Scully quickly turned and fled into her apartment, tears stinging in her eyes, before she could see the look of absolute rejection and hurt on Mulder's face.

Thanks for reading. How did you like Scully's hint that something had happened between the two of them in the past. Comment and thank you!


	5. Chapter 5

DISCLAIMER: I do not own "The X-Files" or its characters.

 **Just a short blurb on Skinner's initial thoughts of the confession of his Agents.**

* * *

After his incredibly dull and arduous meeting concerning boring FBI executive information, Walter Skinner was finally able to have a moment to digest all that Mulder and Scully had divulged to him a matter of hours ago.

Now Skinner had always suspected that there was some unresolved, lingering tension between his two favorite Agents, but he had supposed that it was simply sexual tension that they had discovered over time. But now he had reason to make the associative leap that something of that nature had happened in that time when they had know each other before they were assigned to the X-Files together.

Although he never said anything, Skinner had frequently suspected that their continued devotion to their cases and to each other was due to this complicated relationship that they had. He had witnessed too many of their shared private glances and the way they would literally go to the ends of the earth to save each other, again and again. And personally, Skinner would have bet his high paying government job that eventually, some where in the unforeseen future, that that tension would come to a climax, whether for the best or the worst it is impossible to say.

The Assistant Director had long since hoped that Mulder and Scully would acknowledge their connection, so he could stop worrying that the unbearable strain of hiding their feelings would be their own undoing.

As Skinner packed his bag to go home for the night, a forbidden thought crossed his mind. If Scully did not have Mulder and he was not a reasonably happy married man, he might have long ago tried to woo the daring redhead himself. With a chuckle he dismissed these thoughts to the darkest cavern of his mind.

* * *

Thanks for reading and reviewing!

I might possibly get another chapter in tonight, so stay tuned.


	6. Chapter 6

DISCLAIMER: I do not own "The X-Files" or its characters.

 **Last chapter was kind of short, so here is a longer one. It goes back to the main plot in the past events with Hastings. I also threw in some romantic moments, so I hope you enjoy.**

* * *

In her bedroom, alone, Scully began to ponder her evening with Mulder. It had been so great to spend innocent time with him, almost like they were the couple that she dreamed that they were. But, no. They could not do this, despite how amazing that kiss was.

"No, Dana, we promised that this would not happen again." She chided herself outloud.

She rolled over, but could not sleep dreading have to see Mulder in the morning, and having to continue the story for Skinner.

Mulder drove home blindly, unable to stop reliving the sweetness of Dana's lips on his. But the sting of her rejection pierced his bleeding heart like a seven foot broadsword. The look of disgust and hatred in her eyes as she teared away from him would remain in his mind forever. But he started this, and now he would have to tell Skinner the rest of the tale.

The next morning, Scully showed up uncharacteristically late to work, hoping that Mulder would not be in the office when she made her slow, dread-filled descent into the basement. Thankfully he was not there, but a note attached to the door told her they had already been summoned for torture in Skinner's office.

Scully bypassed Skinner's Mulder-obsessed secretary with a simple nod and entered the war room, a forced look of calm on her face.

But the second she laid eyes on Mulder, his lanky frame stretched out in one of the chairs across from Skinner's desk, her resolve cracked a little, a small hole in the dam that was the walls built around her heart. Mulder visibly jumped in his seat at the sight of her, a mixture of pain and desire in the blue eyes he adored. Thankfully Skinner did not notice this, as he had turned to welcome Agent Scully.

"Okay, let's get this over with…" Scully began.

"As I said yesterday, I was suspicious of the actor playing James Hasting, his reactions were just too real. Something was just not right…"

Xx

Mulder looked incredulously at Dana. He had not sensed anything odd about Hastings or the actor playing him. Her teacher's questioning stare solidified the need within Scully to fully investigate the feelings of trepidation inside her.

When Agent Mulder went to check on the rest of the class, Scully headed to the main office of the Interrogation Building and asked the attendant at the desk if she could have the name of the actor. Although she was given a curious glance for this, the crazy expression her eyes got her his name and address.

Sure that this was going to lead somewhere interesting, Dana ditched Mulder's glances at her as he spoke to her classmates and made her way to the library.

Under the normal internet search, the name Steven Barrymore came up with no hits except for a man would had died in 1973. "That's odd" she murmured to herself.

Dana tried searching under different spellings of the name but still nothing. She needed a better database, but without being fully inducted into the FBI she had nothing better. Unless... Fox. Dana did not want to have to sacrifice her pride and risk his probing green eyes again, but she had to find out if she was crazy for thinking something more was going in here.

As though he had read her mind, Fox entered the library just as she looked up from the computer screen. Dismally she waved him over. He had enough nerve to smile at her.

"Fox, I got the actor's name, Steven Barrymore, but when I search for him online, nothing comes up, I need access to the FBI's database."

Surprisingly, without question Fox opened the database and coded in his badge number and password.

"Thank you."

"Any time."

Quickly, her nervous fingers typed in the name and then they waited in silence for the results. It did not take long. The only result was the one that Scully had already found, the man who had died in 1973. Scully was about to tell Fox this, but then another result appeared. This time with the FBI personnel photo of Barrymore. According to the records he had been an actor in Hogan's Alley for the past three years. But apart from that the page said nothing of his life before he worked for the Academy.

"Curious, why does he not have any other records…?" Fox said softly as he looked over her shoulder.

Scully stifled an involuntary shiver from Fox's breath on her neck.

"I don't know, does it normally give all the information on the person on this page?"

As a test she typed in her own name, and up came her own FBI Academy Student ID photo, a terrible shot, captured while Dana was apparently about to sneeze, from the scrunched up expression on her face.

Fox laughed out loud at this, then quickly bit his tongue as passing librarian glared at him.

"Shut up, Fox." Anyway moving past that Scully scrolled by her past addresses and college records and health report. Okay so there was definitely supposed to be other information on Barrymore's page. She deftly returned to the information on her suspect.

"So Fox, do you still think this a completely normal situation?"

"Well, I have to hand it to you Dana, there is something fishy going on here, especially if he is working for the Academy. Maybe the Bureau does not do extensive background searches on their hired actors. Can you print this page out for me, I want to take it to some people I know."

"Who, some geeky friends of yours?"

Fox looked away pointedly, "No." But he sounded as though he was embarrassed that Dana had discovered his secret.

The next day after a particularly enthusiastic class revolving around the experiences of the various groups during yesterday's interrogations, Fox called Dana over to her desk as the last of the other student filed out of the room.

"Yes, Special Agent Fox Mulder," Dana said as she approached his desk.

For some reason hearing her use his full title was extremely sexy. But Fox tried to pass it off as though nothing had happened.

"I had my 'geeky friends' look up all they could on Steven Barrymore. They found nothing too. Apparently Steven Barrymore did not exist until five years ago, so before he started out acting for Quantico. However through extensively dull hours of searching and using facial recognition software they have developed, my guys discovered that before his transformation into our dear friend, Mr. Barrymore, he was the son of a wealthy business man named Harrison Billets, both with the same name. And before you can ask, yes I am speaking of the Harrison Billets, head of the Billets Software Cooperation. My partners were literally bowing before his picture. He developed amazing software and made it open to the public, until, wait for it…"

"I'm waiting Fox."

"Come on try and to sound excited, until he mysteriously died FIVE years ago."

"What are you saying, Fox? Are you insinuating that Harrison Junior, took part in his father's death?"

"Well that is where it gets even more interesting. Billets was not even known publically to have a son. Frohike, Byers and Langley, those are my friends, they had to dig majorly to find the connection. Junior here was had out of wedlock. The picture that the facial recognition software found was the one taken when Junior was fifteen, just after his mother died of leukemia. He was placed under his father's custody after her death. According to the records, Harrison was then placed into boarding school to help Billets save face to the press. Billets died when Harrison was twenty, after Billets had payed from him to go to one of the best technical schools in the country. Apparently he was trying to have something in common with his son."

"But why would Harrison change his identity unless he had something to do with his father's death?"

"Exactly Scully, and that is the question you are going to ask him. I set up another 'interrogation' in five minutes."

Dana smiled as Fox grabbed her hand and the pair of them ran out of the classroom and towards Hogan's Alley.

* * *

 **Thanks for reading and reviewing! Is the plot thick enough for you? :)**


	7. Chapter 7

DISCLAIMER: I do not own "The X-Files" or its characters.

 **I just went all the way and wrote the last chapters in like four hours. So I will post all of them together. Your welcome.**

* * *

Xx

They arrived in Hogan's Alley in only a few minutes, just in time for their interrogation with James Hastings, who was actually Steven Barrymore, who was actually Harrison Billets.

Dana was pleased when Fox touched her shoulder and said, "You take the reins, Tiger."

She blushed, but opened the door of the interrogation room like it was the door to the like it was the front doors of her own castle.

"Mr. Hastings, I know you must be surprised to see us so soon, but Agent Mulder and I had some more questions for you."

Hastings looked almost the same as yesterday, well manicured and the appearance of cool calmness. However there was a touch of something else in his eyes.

That something was fear.

Fear at being called back to an interrogation that there was only supposed to be one of. Fear that the Agents before him suspected something.

"Mr. Hastings, yesterday we spoke of your father. Could you tell me more of your relationship with him."

Immediately that received a reaction, Harrison's sucked in a breath that was just a little too sharp.

It was over before it had started. Dana and Fox knew his whole story. And they proceeded to tell him, and there was no room for Harrison to deny that he had played a part in his father's death. Harrison would not divulge whether or not he actually committed the murder with his own hands, but that would be solved but other Agents and Forensics teams. What they wanted to know was why.

"Harrison, what made you hate your father? Understandably he was not a part of your life until you were fifteen...but why kill him or have him killed, whichever?" softly inquired Scully.

"Because of a host of reasons. He was never really my father. He never came to see me as a child, he never called, never sent a Birthday card. Never gave so much as a dime to my mother when she was dying. We had nothing, all of the money was siphoned away by the cost of her treatments. I was destitute, practically living in the hospital because it had heat, and he never did anything, despite how many times I wrote letters to his office. He allowed her death to happen. In the end we had to stop all of the treatments, she died because of it. HE KILLED MY MOTHER!" Harrison shouted, tears forming in his eyes. He took a few rattling breaths and then continued, softly whispering, "He killed her. And when she was dead, he came to the funeral and placed his hand on my shoulder and said, 'It's alright, son.' It was not 'alright.' He was no father of mine, what right did he have to try to console me? And then he sent me off to that damned school, to learn to become more like him. To the surprise of everyone, I did. I had only ever had experience with the computers and machines in the hospital, but I picked it up like it was easier than breathing.'

'But despite how technology came to me like a first language, I hated it, I hated it because of my father. What I really wanted to do in this life was something 'my father' thought was useless. He could never see the beauty in the arts and what was outside of his computers. I wanted to become an actor. Unknown to my father, I had also been taking acting classes at the school. The stage, not the computer lab, was my true home.'

'Without his own knowledge, my father had given me the skills I needed to do what I did. To erase my old identity and to create a new one."

"Harrison, there is just one thing I don't understand," began Dana. "Why did you take a job at the FBI? Where it was more likely that you were going to be found out?"

"You see, Agent Scully, I already had friends in the program and the FBI does a shoddy job of inspecting actors like us. But mostly because this was the first steady paying acting job that called my name." Then Harrison seemed to become lost in the reverie of his hopeful acting career.

For almost the first time since they entered the room, Fox spoke. "Well, seeing as you are not officially an FBI Agent yet, you cannot actually arrest this man, Dana. So don't mind if I do the honors," he said with a smile as he pulled out his handcuffs. "I'll try to get you into a prison with an acting camp, alright Harrison?"

Xx

"So," Scully concluded "That was our first solved case together. Linking an FBI hired actor to the mysterious death of his estranged father."

"Although it was not the now typical 'Mulder and Scully and Aliens case,' I had a good time. Didn't you Scully?"

Skinner watched as Scully just stared at Mulder, a slight blush in her cheeks, but she said nothing.

"Why was that case kept secret from the Bureau for all of these years, you too should have got credit?" Skinner was being diplomatic, trying to hit two birds with the same stone.

"Well, technically I was not supposed to be teaching that class, if you remember the secretive nature of Agent Rodney's departure. And we just let the other Agents take the credit for the case to keep Agent Rodney's whereabouts out of questioning."

"Huh" replied Skinner.

"Huh, indeed," retorted Mulder.

"I think that is all you need to know, Skinner," said Scully, as she stood for the door. "Are you coming, Mulder, we have work to do."

Mulder also stood. "Oh, and Skinner, in response to your earlier question, as to why we never told the Bureau that we knew each other, Scully and I went on a date after that case." He said this all very quickly before Scully could realize what he was saying, and practically drag him from the room.

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 **Thank you for reading and commenting...now the next chapter.**


	8. Chapter 8

DISCLAIMER: I don't own "The X-Files" or it's characters.

 **Flashbacks to their relationship!**

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"Mulder, why-"

"Scully, we had to give Skinner a legitimate reason as to why we never told anyone. Hopefully he will be satisfied and leave it alone. Although he will definitely start to think there is something going on between us."

Mulder brought his piercing green stare up into Scully's eyes, "Is there something going on between us, Scully?" He said it with the utmost tenderness, as if it was his dearest wish for her to say yes.

Xx

Dana and Fox had just solved their first case together, although unknown to them, it would certainly not be their last. They emerged from the building conquering heroes, smiling and laughing at their own astuteness.

"You know, Dana, you were really great in there. I have full confidence that the nation will be a safer place with you in charge."

"You weren't too shabby yourself, handcuffing people and ordering people about."

They stood their in front of the building, smiling like fools, when Dana did something that neither of them had planned or anticipated. She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him. At first Fox was too shocked to react properly, but soon one hand was resting at her waist and the other was intertwined in her beautiful red hair. They stayed this way for several moments, kissing passionately but slowly, savoring the moment.

When they broke apart, breathing heavily, Dana blushed saying "Sorry, I didn't plan on doing that, not that I didn't enjoy it because I did-"

Fox cut her off with another breathtaking kiss and the promise of dinner later.

Fox met Dana at the entrance to the school that night. He saw her instantly, she was wearing a bright red dress that looked amazing. She did not see him walking up the path towards her. So he took his time, enjoying the view that he first saw here only a few short days ago, not knowing how he had lived his life without this incredible woman standing before him. It felt as if they had known each other forever and would always know each other.

As he approached, he called out to her. Dana turned, and he heard her gasp. Fox quickly looked down to make sure that he was in fact wearing pants and was not otherwise shocking. Dana noticed his odd behavior with a laugh, she smiled and said, "Sorry I was only reacting to how fantastic you look. I have never seen you with your jacket off."

Fox decided while he was walking that it was too hot to wear both his jacket and his long sleeved shirt. So he was currently holding his jacket over his shoulder and had rolled up his sleeves, revealing his forearms. Dana was biting her lip at him, this sent a shudder through Fox, he did not usually get this reaction from women, or at least from women he actually liked enough to actually care about their opinion of him. It was irresistible. He could not help himself, and quickly claimed her lips in his.

"You look beautiful too," Fox whispered as they broke apart.

They continued in this way. Dating and seeing each other while Dana was at the Academy, and while Fox was not away on a case. It was a blissful few months for the both of them, although they kept their relationship a secret, fearing what the Bureau would say about their forbidden romance. And although they both tried to ignore it, they both sensed that this relationship had a deadline. Dana's instatement into the FBI.

Graduation came too soon. Dana graduated with honors and was given her official title as Special Agent Dana Scully, her gun and her badge. After she was embraced by her father and her tear streaked mother, Fox was waiting for her. They embraced tenderly, Fox whispering how proud he was that his girlfriend was a genius.

They had never used titles like that to define their secret relationship, titles were more to tell other people the status of a couple's relationship. But that endearment was what gave Dana the armor to do what she had to do.

"Fox-"

"I am not going to like where this is going am I?"

"No, but it has to be this way now. We cannot risk it now that I am officially an FBI Agent too. Agents are not allowed to be in relationships with other Agents. You know that."

"I know, but I wish I didn't."

"Me too, Fox me too."

"Oh, Dana that is another thing. If we are going to pretend to be just colleagues, you need to stop calling me that."

"What?"

"Fox, no one else, only my family are the only people to ever call me 'Fox.' Often times my parents also called me 'Mulder.'"

"Oh. Okay." For some reason the loss of the privilege to have that close of a relationship to this man, one that was as close as family, was more of a loss than the ending of their relationship.

"Mulder, then." She said his name as if it carried a strange taste in her mouth.

"Yes, Scully."

Together, they walked out into the city. They had come to a silent understanding that they would spend this one last perfect night together before they went their separate ways.

Xx

Until one morning in two years later, when a nervous Dana Scully walked down the soon to be familiar steps to Fox Mulder's basement office.

When Scully was told that she had been assigned to work with Fox Mulder on the X-Files she experienced something similar to a heart attack. She felt simultaneous fear and joy and anxiety coupled with the heat of spreading adrenaline. But she decided to act natural, as she and Mulder had whenever they had encountered each other briefly at the Bureau.

But even as she said, "Agent Mulder, I'm Dana Scully. I have been assigned to work with you."

And he replied, "Oh, isn't it nice to be suddenly so highly regarded." The feelings started to return. Their handshake lasted longer than one normal does. They were both so shocked to be so suddenly in each others presence that they could not help but feel the waves of tension spread between them. But the fear of losing their jobs, the fear of having to tell their story, but most of all the fear of letting themselves feel that way for each other again kept them silent for seven years. Until this moment.

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 **Thank you for reading and reviewing. One more chapter to go plus a mini bonus chapter.**


	9. Chapter 9

DISCLAIMER: I do not own "The X-Files" or its characters.

 **Here we are, the end, the final truth filled moments. Thank you to those who have taken this journey of my first extended fanfic with me.**

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Mulder and Scully jolted as though they had both experienced the same flashback of their romantic history together, the strength of their feelings welling up inside of them.

"Is there anything between us, Scully… That kiss, I am sorry for surprising you with that last night, but I do not regret that kiss. It made me realize somethings."

"What things?" Scully asked immediately, her eyes showing the hope her brain would not allow her to feel. "Wait, no. No, Mulder the same reasons that held true then, hold true now. The Bureau will not let us be together."

"What if I don't care what the Bureau has to say. Why do they have to know? What if I...what if I…"

"What if you what, Mulder?"

"What if I love you. What if I never stopped loving you. What if I have always loved you."

"Mulder-"

"No Scully, I need to get this off my chest… Dana Katherine Scully, I am totally, irreversibly, fly-to-Antarctica-to-save-you-because-I-can't-bear-to-live-without-you in love with you. And I have been since I saw you sitting on that bench with your hair all messed up and your face was all red from running, but you looked up at me with those big blue eyes of yours and I was in love with you. You are my everything, without you I am nothing. Not the work I do, or my quest, or even my own life has ever been as important to me as you are. And I don't care what the Bureau says. I love you. And if you don't feel the same about me then, we can just go back to working together. I just had to tell you."

Mulder looked down, afraid to see the rejection in Scully's eyes...again.

He could practically feel the wheels turning in his partner's mind. He heard her move, and expected to be slapped across the face for his confession.

But instead, her finger crooked under his chin and forced his eyes to met hers.

"Mulder, I have being fighting with myself for the better part of a decade. You are strong, brave and intelligent, you have given everything up for me, and I have sacrificed myself to keep you that way in anyway I could. You understand me like no one else on this world or otherwise ever has. Without you I surely would have suffered alone, letting my walls of science and logic defend me from anything that tested those rules. But some people are worth letting you walls down. You have opened my mind and my heart to a world I never would have experienced without you. You are my world. And despite how I have denied myself the feelings I have for you, they were always there. And they grew stronger everyday."

Scully lowered her hand to Mulder's chest right over his heart. Mulder looked down at her hand.

"Fox," Mulder looked up at the sound of his first name daring to hope that he was about to hear the three words that would set his heart free, the heart this redheaded scientist had always held in her well manicured hands.

"Fox, I have loved you since you stood before me and huge loopy grin on your handsome face and asked me if you could sit next to me. And you have been sitting next to me for the last nine years, and that is how I want it to be for the rest of my life."

For a moment they stood there, marveling in the truth of their confessions, in the depths of the love their shared for one another. Then slowing as if savoring this eternal moment, Dana stood on her tiptoes and kissed him. The man she loved, the man who loved her back. And it was perfect. It was all of the things they had denied, all the truths they had hidden from each other, all the late night pizza runs, the shared motel rooms, a hundred cases together that had started with one. It was their first kiss, all their shared moments, the good times and the bad times, it was their story. The story of a love that began with four small words.

After what seemed like a perfect eternity, they broke apart, embracing each other and laughing, their hearts filled with the joy of long lost lovers, finally to be reunited. Finally to love and hold one another. And it was like they were truly meeting each other for the first time.

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 **Do you have the tingles? Hehe. Thank you for reading and reviewing.**


	10. Chapter 10

DISCLAIMER: I do not own "The X-Files" or its characters.

 **Thank you so much for all of you who have stuck with my until this point. And here is my gift to you, a bonus chapter in the point of view of Walter Skinner. I ended it as I began it, with the Skin Man.**

 **SPOILERS: FOR SEASON 7 HOLLYWOOD A.D.**

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Caught up in their emotions and happiness, Mulder and Scully did not close the door to their office, nor did they hear someone come down the stairs, and did not hear someone stand in the doorway and chuckle. Walter Skinner had come down to ask Mulder about his parting words, but the answer to their relationship past and present was right in front of him. His two favorite Agents kissing, hugging and laughing. Finally. They came to their senses.

Skinner chuckled, and grinned. If Agent Scully wanted to be with Mulder that was fine, but he still had the bigger flashlight.

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 **:)**


End file.
